Hot Mess

Interesting post about projecting a hot-mess persona to be a successful yet relate-able woman. This made me think of a boss I had for sometime - H. When I first met her, I thought she was sharp as as tack that could run circles around most people her level and higher. It made sense she was where she was in her career. 

Over time, I learned other things about her - she could be a control-freak, act like a diva, attack people like we were still in kindergarten and fighting over who got on the swing-set first. She integrated these aspects of her personality seamlessly with her razor-sharp professional one. Those of us who worked with her were in a permanent state of vigilance, we never knew what would happen next, so we remained in high-alert mode. That was her preferred management style and apparently also the strategy to come across a hot mess. 

By and large, Hot Messes haven’t merely weathered the ebbs and flows of their professional lot in life; with varying combinations of grit, talent, vision, and luck, they’ve actually managed to thrive. They tend to have relatively privileged upbringings. But even if they grew up in five-bedroom McMansions with parents who could pay the sum total of their college tuitions (biographical details they’ll reveal over their dead bodies, thank you), their successes were neither handed to them nor presumed. Sure, they may have had a leg up, but they didn’t squander it. And they were always just a little weird.

That sounds like it was written after spending a year joined in the hip with H. I think the author has me convinced she may be on to something with her hot mess theory.